Falling prices, higher costs hit cardamom farmers in Sikkim

MANGAN / RANGPO, 23 Aug 2018: Falling
prices of cardamom when the cost of production has gone up because of
the emphasis on organic farming have put cardamom growers in Sikkim in
dire straits. The setback has come when cardamom cultivation was just
recovering from a severe attack from infectious diseases.

This is the time for harvesting of big black cardamom and West Sikkim
has lately outstripped in cultivation of cardamom the North District
which used to be the hub of cardamom cultivation and the largest
cardamom-growing district in the country. But the smile of joy seems to
have vanished from the faces of cardamom growers.
Till about a few years ago, cardamom used to fetch a price of Rs 50,000
a ‘maund’; that is for a bag of 40 kgs. For the big black variety, the
prices could be even higher; seven to eight years ago even a price of Rs
80,000 had been recorded. Encouraged by the high prices, many farmers
had taken to cardamom farming. But, now the prices have crashed to Rs
17,000 to Rs 23,000 for 40 kgs, putting the farmers in a quandary.
Cardamom has long been an important cash crop in Sikkim. In between the
emphasis in Sikkim changed to organic farming, it became the first
fully organic state in the country. Cardamom growers, too, switched to
the organic methods of farming, but growers say this has increased their
challenges. With sky-rocketing prices of all other products, the cost
of production has increased. Growers had hoped that the price of
cardamom, too, would increase but the opposite has happened, as an
aggrieved farmer has said.
Production was depressed some years ago because of an infectious
disease that hat hit cardamom plants and saplings. Farmers were helpless
as even the Spices Board, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research
and the Horticulture Department could not treat the plants and retrieve
production. Ultimately, however, the farmers had managed to stabilize
production. But now after resorting to the organic methods of production
they have got into another problem.
One of the reasons for the fall in prices of cardamom is believed to be
the disputes between India and Pakistan, because of which demand from
the neighbouring country has gone down. Farmers selling saplings to
neighbouring states like Assam and Meghalaya have also suffered because
big businessmen working as middlemen were taking all the profits while
the farmers were being left with a meagre amount. Besides, the saplings
could not flower in foreign soils, reducing the chance of sale of
saplings to these states. Though the government has increased the rate
from Rs 3 to Rs 5 per sapling, farmers in Sikkim wonder who would buy
them: the government or farmers from other states.
Distressed farmers appeal to the government to keep a check on
activities of businessmen so that they cannot take all the profit.
Besides, Sikkim being an organic state the farmers should have a say in
the prices of their products. The prices should not be left entirely to
the market to decide.(EOIC)

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Falling prices of cardamom when the cost of production has gone up because of the emphasis on organic farming have put cardamom growers in Sikkim in dire straits.